// 9TO5GOOGLE — MOBILE & WEB
Review: The Pixel 11 Pro XL is great, but a little too early for Google’s futuristic vision
At this point, phones have been boring for long enough that even calling them boring feels a little passé. The days of smartphones feeling like the cutting edge of technology are long gone, replaced with iterative updates and a big focus on software-as-a-service. Disconnecting from your smartphone might not seem too difficult on its face, but from rideshare apps to mobile payments, today’s solutions tend to leave a lot more gaps in your life than you might otherwise expect.
I say all of this because, in some ways, Google appears to be the one smartphone maker seriously thinking about this divide. Sure, the Pixel 11 Pro XL — and its various siblings — all fall into the exact “boring” archetype I’m describing. We’re on the third generation of this design, after all, which itself is an evolved take on the camera bar style initially launched with the Pixel 6 in 2021. Nearly everything new here feels like a software trick that, it’s easy to assume, could be backported to at least some previous Pixels, and the handful of hardware changes you’ll find aren’t all positive.
And yet, Google appears to be attempting to bridge the gap between our always-connected world and the one we left behind. HiLight wants you to turn your phone over, relying on a modernized notification LED in lieu of an always-on display. Magic Capture wants you to take your eyes off the viewfinder so you can get the shot without missing the actual moment. Even the pitch of Gemini Intelligence is designed to anticipate tasks before you actually reach for your phone to begin with.
Whether Google actually pulled this off with the Pixel 11 Pro XL is another story, but there’s certainly something to be said for trying.
We begin, however, with a design that, no doubt, anyone reading this review is all too familiar with. Once again, Google is recycling its Pixel 9 design from 2024, with just a handful of refinements that feel more like change for the sake of change than real stylistic decisions. It’s a few grams lighter than its direct predecessor, but still not as light as the magnet-less Pixel 9 Pro XL — or, for that matter, its closest competitor in the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Its chassis is nearly identical to both of Google’s last two swings, though a revised camera bar means you’ll want a new case anyway. Whatever comes next for Pixel, I’m hoping for something a little slimmer and lighter; as it stands, Google’s XL model very much still feels like a brick. A very pretty, very elegant brick, but a brick nonetheless.
I’m a little mixed on my review unit’s Canyon color. As is often the case with Pixels in particular, this shade is less saturated in person than it appears in Google’s online renders, giving the impression of Coral more than anything truly fresh. Yet again, the metal frame on both Pro models remains perfectly polished, designed for attracting smudges, sweat, fingerprints, and scratches. Google is one of the few companies that has yet to fully embrace matte finishes across a flagship portfolio, even as the existence of an all-matte Obsidian model appears to suggest it’s aware of the perks.
Really, aside from an updated slate of colors, it’s the camera bar that gives the game away. Google’s decision to bring back its first uncovered camera bar since the Pixel 6 series can be read as a big swing, considering that model faced some big lens flare issues at the time. I can’t say I’ve seen any more lens flares than usual, thankfully, and all-black look is, admittedly, pretty striking. There’s a reason Google initially chased this look back in 2021, after all, and I think it really works here in a refined, full-circle kind of way.
What doesn’t work, though, is the Pixel 11 Pro XL’s new camera flash. Google has seen fit to try to revive notification lights, only modernized for the AI era. The result is HiLight, a terrible name for a terrible product that will make you nostalgic for the freshly-removed temperature sensor you never actually used.
HiLight, at least